Sunday, December 30, 2012

Adios DK

After serving eight terms as one of the most progressive members of the US House of Representatives, Dennis Kucinich is leaving Washington D.C. next month. Kucinich was often the most reasonable voice in very unreasonable and irrational times. He ran for President several times, once I got to see him at a campaign stop in Atascadero, California. He was proud defender of the often time embattled and much maligned label of liberal. He will be missed. Below is the text for one of his most famous speeches given in February 2002.

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A Prayer for America

by US Rep Dennis Kucinich

February 17, 2002

I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love
of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our
country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of
freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a
belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak
freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and
fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear
and faith at the same time.

With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the
unity of the United States. That implicit in the union of our country is
the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the
world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics,
trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected through
human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the
world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to
breathe free.
I offer this prayer for America.

Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the
promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil
rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act.
We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional
justice?

How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying
due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?

We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups.

We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which
may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial
records.

We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance.

We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to
privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total
secrecy.

The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice
showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice
exposing herself at this time, before this administration.

Let us pray that our nation’s leaders will not be overcome with fear.
Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be
understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the
current environment.

The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11.

It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare
occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing.

It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail.

It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror
alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill
to the floor of the House.

It continued in the release of the bin Laden tapes at the same time the
President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty.

It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol.

It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus.

It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote.
The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear,
ill-equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War
Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.

Let us pray that our country will stop this war. “To promote the common
defense” is one of the formational principles of America.

Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of
September 11. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the
terror of September 11th. But we the people and our elected
representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to
proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the
response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.

We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.

We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.

We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.

We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.

We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.

We did not authorize assassination squads.

We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.

We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.

We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.

We did not authorize national identity cards.

We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.

We did not authorize an eye for an eye.

Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on
September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in
Afghanistan.

We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere,anyhow it pleases.

We did not authorize war without end.

We did not authorize a permanent war economy.

Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President
has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All
defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion.
Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit.

Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the
Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions.

Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22
billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as
lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored
nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.

Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to
fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to
create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror.

This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine
with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation,
risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which
follows the militarization of the budget.

Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end.
Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror
of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of
homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of
hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a
world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people,
not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate
for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of
the world.

Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a
nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September
11th our democratic traditions.

Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society.

Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable.

Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic.

That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace
envisions. Forty-three members of Congress are now cosponsoring the
legislation.

Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That
is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty.
That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.

Let us work for a world where America can lead the day in banning
weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but
from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free
of fear. Where we can look up at God’s creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite
possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom
will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death
which haunt us, the layers of images of September 11th, faded into
images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization,
jump-cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series,
New Year’s Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which
touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of
human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here
at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere.

That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world.

That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but
which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom.
America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America.

Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of
evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through
establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good
America. America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our
country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but
from the threats within.

Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and
sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and
forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice
here at home and throughout the world.

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Put Guahu / About Me

This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified